The Present Disclosure relates generally to cable interconnection systems, and, more particularly, to improved cable assemblies for use in high speed data transmission applications.
Conventional cable interconnection systems are found in electronic devices such as routers, servers and the like, and are used to form signal transmission lines. These transmission lines may extend between chip members and connectors, connectors in two different devices, and between devices themselves. Often, differential signal wires are used for each such transmission line in a cable and although it is easy to maintain a desired impedance profile along the length of the cable due to the cable geometry, it is difficult to maintain such a profile at the termination ends of the wires. In some instances, these terminations occur at circuit board that takes the form of an edge, or paddle, card. The wires are terminated to contact pads along the trailing edge of the circuit board. In such a situation, the exterior insulation is stripped back and the bare conductors are terminated to solder pads or the like. Removing the exterior insulation also requires removing the outer shield of the cable wires so that the termination area is left poorly grounded. This ungrounded area has been known to contribute to and increase the crosstalk between the wires in high speed applications. It is desirable to therefore have a cable termination with a structure that lessens the discontinuities in impedance profiles.
The Present Disclosure is therefore directed to a cable assembly particularly suitable for high speed data transmission applications.